The pros and cons and a DIY will

The pros and cons and a do-it-yourself will.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Sure.

Bill: 20 years ago I had a will drawn up and was following all this and since then I've had some major life changes, so to speak. My circumstances are different now. I just wanted you to talk about the pros and cons of maybe doing it DYI or do-it-yourself rather, sorry, or online pros and cons versus seeing someone such as yourself.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Bill, are you a single man, by the way?

Bill: Yes, sir. I'm single. I have some daughters. I have a modest-sized estate.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Okay. We're going to pot you down because we got a lot of background noise going on out there. Hey, folks. I'm a lawyer. I'm going to give you a biased answer. I might say do not do your own will documents online or through any of the publications that you can get. I do recommend that you have an attorney do it for you. Now, here's a couple of reasons why. I'm going to ask you questions and these are things that you may never thought of.

For example, when you say, "Tom, hey, when I pass away, I'm going to leave everything to my three kids." I'm going to say, "Well, if one of your children happens to die before you, will his or her share go to his or her children, your grandchildren or will his or her share go to your surviving children?" When I ask people that question, often they'll look at me and go, "I never thought about that." Well if you don't know what to think about, how do you know how to properly prepare your will?

Here's another good reason that exists. When we're doing will documents for people, hey, folks, that's the basics. We're going to then take it to the next level and talk to you about how to avoid probate. Having a will has nothing to do with avoiding probate. A will simply directs what happens to your assets when they go through probate. What's doing a will for you is really just the foundation of your estate planning. The bulk of your foundation of the estate planning is helping you to avoid probate, how to make things simple, easy, inexpensive for your children when you pass away.

If you make it simple, easy, inexpensive for your children when you pass away, there's going to be less opportunities for them to argue and end up hating each other. Believe me, folks, it is happening every day with clients, people that we're meeting out there. Very important, not only to get your estate planning done correctly, but help you to avoid probate. Now, folks, we have a booklet on easy ways to avoid probate. Chrissy, if they want to get that booklet on easy ways to avoid probate, what do they call.

Chrissy: You can call or text 407-423-5561 and we will send that booklet out to you. All you have to do is put your name and mailing address and we will send that to you. You can either call or text 407-423-5561.